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The Brazil international has missed Manchester City's last seven games with a stress fracture, but was expected to return for the Carling Cup clash with Scunthorpe next week.

However, the City boss admitted that the damaged area had not healed as quickly as they thought, leaving the 26-year-old facing another two weeks on the sidelines.

The news means that the former Real Madrid man could come back against Burnley on November 7th, but the game against Liverpool following the international break may be more likely.

"He has had a setback and the likelihood is that it will be nearer to 10 to 14 days," he told Sky Sports News.

"The area where the stress fracture is hasn't healed as quickly as we first anticipated. He could probably join in with the group, but the fear is if he got a direct bang where the stress fracture is then there is a chance he may re-break the leg.

"So we don't want to put him in those circumstances, it would be crazy, so we are going to stay on the side of safety.

"We have got options and it is important that we don't put him at risk."

Not for sale

Hughes also described the recent speculation over Robinho's future as a 'non-story' after he stated all along that the forward was not leaving Eastlands.

The Welshman's stance was backed up on Thursday when Barca sporting director Txiki Begiristain admitted that the Catalan club would not follow up their interest.

"It doesn't really surprise me because I knew that anyway, it's a non-story from our point of view," Hughes said.

"Nothing changes with respect to Robi. He won't be leaving us so that's the top and bottom for us."